Question

Try to Conceive before or after graduate school?

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I am nearing 30 and trying to plan out how the next few years of my life are going to look. I know that I want to have a baby and was considering TTC. However, I also want to persue my masters degree and become a speech pathologist. This will be three plus years of school.
To those of you who may have been in similar situations should i do school first and ttc during my first year at a new job in a new career when I'm 34-35? (thats a little older than I had hoped!) or skip graduate school to have a baby and go back when I'm ready to leave the little one with a babysitter/family? I'm thinking after a year or so as I'd really love to be a stay at home mom for at least the first year.

Mom Answers

There is no reason you can't do grad school with a baby. The first year of grad school is the hardest, but after that it settles down; you'll be spending a lot of time at home anyway writing your thesis, which is conducive to having a baby. So I would wait until after your first year, and try to conceive so that you give birth over the summer. If you want to take a leave of absence that can also be worked out. I just finished grad school and the timing is working out for me, but I also know I could have done it earlier. Just takes committment and will power to write, even when you are tired!

Sure, you can be in graduate school while you have a baby, but consider this. I had my LO while I was just beginning to write my dissertation. I never finished. (of course my field is music, which is a dying field) My advice is to wait until you actually graduate to TTC. Pregnancy brain and mommy brain are real things that happen to the brightest of scholars. Don't take a change that you will not be the 100% best student or 100% mother you can be. One at a time!

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